Press

"Social innovation is a key keyword of the Moon Jae-in administration and will continue to be recognized as an important social trend. While the expansion of the social innovation ecosystem is a positive phenomenon, we must also consider the possibility of side effects from excessive support," said Kim Jung-heon, CEO of Underdogs Holdings. He added that while the government is making full-scale efforts to achieve its commitment to create 2,000 social enterprises by 2022, various ecosystem participants must work together for healthy growth of the social innovation corporate ecosystem. Underdogs, a social innovation company builder, held an event on the 11th at Seoul Innovation Park in Bulgwang-dong to promote social value. At this small-scale event, about 10 people from social innovation and social value creation sectors gathered to discuss the direction social innovation startups should pursue. Established in June 2015, Underdogs is the only company in Korea to champion the social innovation company builder model. Currently, Underdogs operates 4 subsidiaries and 1 affiliated company, with Quitschool, a career education company for office workers, being a representative enterprise. CEO Kim Jung-heon stated, "Recently, the term 'social innovation startup' is being mentioned more frequently instead of 'social venture.'" He explained, "With the emergence of 'social innovation startups' as a new concept encompassing social ventures, cooperatives, nonprofit startups, and general startups, the ecosystem in this area is expanding." He added, "Unlike in the past, there is now a trend where general startups with social purposes receive impact investment, and the atmosphere has shifted from distinguishing what traditional social ventures are to focusing on what impact they create." However, he argued that the ecosystem in the social innovation sector is growing slower than the domestic venture startup ecosystem. CEO Kim stated, "In the general startup ecosystem, there is a clear distinction between institutions and investment companies with expertise in education and investment at each growth stage, but this is not the case in the social innovation sector. From an industry perspective, I believe it is still an immature market." He noted that startup education and investment, which should be conducted with expertise, are typically bundled together rather than specialized. He further explained that compared to the profit-oriented startup ecosystem, the social innovation startup ecosystem still shows insufficient results due to lack of digital technology-based startups, shortage of entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial spirit, and lack of quality startup education programs. He stated, "The fact that only Delight has exited as a social innovation startup in the past 10 years proves this," and emphasized that building channels for attracting quality social innovation entrepreneurs, creating technology resource-based startup and ecosystem development, and establishing corporate growth ladders are necessary for a mature market. He also expressed concerns about increasing support projects. While support from the government, large corporations, and universities for social innovation enterprises is expanding explosively, there is a shortage of both companies that can receive such support and educational institutions, which could potentially lead to a bubble. He stated, "From an ecosystem perspective, in line with this government's policy direction, investment funds have increased, but if funds only grow without sufficient players in the ecosystem, it could become problematic when the bubble bursts later." He added, "From the end of this year, various institutions will play a role in solving problems." Finally, he said, "For ecosystem development, long-term channels and ecosystem building that enable the inflow of quality social innovation entrepreneurs are necessary." Subsequently, Jo Sang-rae, CEO of Underdogs, shared Underdogs' step-by-step expertise in startup education for nurturing social innovation startups. CEO Jo stated, "Underdogs has built proprietary solutions by utilizing the actual methods it uses to build social innovation companies, which are being used to help early-stage entrepreneurs with education and team building." CEO Kim Jung-heon remarked, "In the 3 years I've been running Underdogs, I've met 5,000 entrepreneurs. The ecosystem has definitely improved and the number of people has increased compared to before, but there's a high possibility that support institutions could outnumber those offering support, so Underdogs' role in nurturing early-stage social innovation companies will become even more important."